No attorney wants to hear the words “legal
malpractice.” But for those who practice
professional-liability law, such charges
provide opportunities to either right wrongs
or fight accusations against fellow lawyers.

In essence, it could be argued, they’re bothabout improving the profession.

The dollar amounts of these claims are
on the rise, according to an Ames & Gough
study. And common allegations range
from “procrastination” to “clerical error” to
“fraud,” according to an ABA committee
report. Bottom line: A client feels wronged
and wants compensation.

Karen Goodman has spent the past
three decades defending lawyers and real
estate brokers. A Sacramento native who
works out of a three-attorney office, her
original plan was to use her degree from
the University of San Francisco School of
Law in a career as a real estate developer.

Instead, she opted to practice real
estate law. Goodman went to work for
Murphy Pearson Bradley & Feeney, where
she defended real estate brokers—and
lawyers—who were hit with malpractice
suits. Then in 2003, Goodman moved
on to found her own firm, Goodman &
Associates. The legal malpractice area of
her business keeps growing.

On the opposite side of the aisle is Bill
Gwire, who estimates that his process of
selecting only the highest-quality cases
means he takes only two of every 100
brought to his three-attorney Emeryville
firm’s door each year.

The scrappy Brooklynite’s circuitous and
serendipitous path to his current practice
area included stints stationed in the Azores
in an air-rescue and recovery unit, and
teaching air rescue and recovery at Mountain
Home Air Force Base in rural Idaho during
the Vietnam War. He began his career doing
general practice in San Mateo. It was the
Loma Prieta earthquake that literally shook
him out of his professional doldrums and led
him to his current practice.

PRAGMATIC AND DIRECT, GOODMAN

represents professionals who, for whatever
reason, find themselves in a jam. They
range from the wrongly accused to those
who just made a mistake to serial offenders
whose moral code accepts the occasional
lawsuit as an occupational hazard.

“I deal with problems that can rangefrom a nuisance lawsuit to some cases …where there’s been a very serious harm tothe client, and it’s my objective to attemptto resolve those quickly before unnecessarycosts are incurred,” she says. “Because ofmy knowledge of ethics, I’m able to prettyquickly figure out where the rubber meetsthe road.”A past president of CaliforniaWomen Lawyers, Goodman haswritten extensively about ethics andthe law. She has served on the stateBar’s Committee on ProfessionalResponsibility and Conduct, its LegalMalpractice Specialization Task Force,and its board of trustees. And last year,she chaired the California State BarDiscipline Standards committee.

Part of Goodman’s job is getting herattorney clients to face reality. “They tendto be in absolute denial,” she says. “Overtime, provided I can get their confidenceand trust, they typically move on to, ‘It’s inmy best interests to unburden myself andtry to get rid of this case so we can move onand get back to work.’“But sometimes you just haveunreasonable, difficult clients, or lawyerswho’ve stretched themselves outsidetheir comfort zone. And some areethically impaired, morally compromised,or maybe have some other issues … thatmake it difficult for them to recognizethat they may have made an error injudgment. They are the most difficult.

But whatever the situation, you have tomake a quick, candid evaluation of whatneeds to happen and try to resolve it.”She believes, of course, that some clientsare unjustly hit with malpractice suits. Oneattorney was accused of mishandling anemployment case after his client refuseda significant settlement offer in favor ofgoing to trial. “Because of his skill set, hewas able to secure a very substantial, veryattractive offer pretrial that she rejected,”Goodman says. “She was not interestedin—borrowing a sports analogy—a double;she wanted a home run.”The attorney advised his client of therisks of trial and ultimately tried thecase twice, but both juries decided infavor of the defendant. The client filed amalpractice claim, blaming her trial losseson her attorney, but Goodman won hiscase. “[The client] decided that she was,frankly, going to roll the dice and take thecase to trial. He [had done] a good job,”she says. “I think she was never reallyinterested in the lawyer’s counsel anddidn’t appreciate the value of what hebrought to her.”Goodman keeps her eye on the goal: toget her clients through their cases quicklyand calmly, and at a minimum of emotionaland financial cost. This usually meanssettling a case before it goes to trial.

GWIRE’S PRACTICE AREA MAY NOT BE

the one lawyers dreamed of as childrenwatching Perry Mason or L.A. Law. Heacknowledges that, in years past, somelawyers would refer to legal malpractice asa “bottom-feeder practice.”But Gwire is passionate about his work.

Forty-some years ago, he was a newbie
lawyer from the mean streets when he got
this advice from a veteran colleague: “You
can’t take this stuff home with you.” He
never forgot the advice, because to his ears
it was outrageous.

“What he meant,” Gwire says, “was,‘Don’t get emotionally involved in the case.’I’ve never learned how to do that.”Gwire says he’d been “seduced” intorunning the San Francisco office of anLA-based firm, where he was handlingcivil cases, representing mostly largebusinesses and high-net-worth individuals.

He found himself growing dissatisfied. “Alot of times,” he says, “the more successfulyou get, the farther you get from whatdrives you.”Then the earthquake. On Oct. 17, 1989,as his beloved San Francisco Giants werewarming up for Game 3 of the World Seriesagainst the Oakland A’s, a 6. 9 magnitudeearthquake hit. Gwire took it as a sign thatit was time to make some changes.

“In life, there are events that cometogether,” he says. “You need tobe aware of them. The Loma Prietaearthquake was that sort of definingmoment for me.”So he set out to change things, whichincluded opening a solo litigationfirm in San Francisco that sameyear. The first malpractice case soonfollowed—another of the serendipitous